The Tenacious Katniss Everdeen
by saphire132
Summary: This is my newest story. This takes place during the games. Cato is harboring feelings for Katniss, but why? He has to kill her anyway? Does Katniss feel the same? Read to find out! Please read and review!
1. Chapter 1

**This is my newest story! Please read and review! **

**Chapter 1 **

_5-4-3-2-1 GONG!_

The sound went and 16 year old Katniss Everdeen of District 12 took off. She ran as fast in the direction of the silver bow and arrows. Once she got there, she grabbed the weapon and shot an arrow in the direction of the boy from District 8. The arrow hit it's target perfectly, it was shot straight through the boy's neck. Blood spurt out of his mouth as he fell down to the ground. Katniss ran over to the boy's body and picked up his backpack. Katniss slugged the bag over her shoulder and grabbed the huge metallic sword from his hands.

"Ahhh!" A girl shouted.

Katniss turned around and she saw Glimmer, the girl from District 1, towering over Rue, the little tribute from District 11. Something inside of Katniss made her see red. She shot an arrow at Glimmer and the arrow went straight through her neck, just as it did to the boy from 8. "RUN! GET OUT OF HERE! NOW!" Katniss shouted over to Rue. The younger girl nodded the head in response and sprinted in the direction of the forest. Katniss began to run into the direction of the forest and she didn't stop until thought she was deep enough in the woods. Katniss sat down on the ground and opened the backpack. Inside of it was a pack of knives, a water bottle, and a rope. _Not bad. _Katniss thought. She began to relax, and as soon as she began to get comfortable, Katniss heard laughter, lots and lots of laughter. She packed up her stuff and ran to the nearest tree and climbed it as high as she could.

"What was that noise?" A masculine voice asked. Katniss couldn't recognize the voice, but it didn't sound good.

"I don't know, lets search the area. If you find a tribute, kill them." Another masculine voice asked. Katniss could recognize this voice, it belonged to Cato, the muscular tribute from District 2. Katniss really began to get scared,she knew that he would catch her if she didn't move quickly. Katniss started to swing across the branches and she thought that she was safe, so she fell asleep in the branch, however, she didn't know that the Careers were right on her trail, and were out for blood.

* * *

"I caught her! I found Katniss! She's in the tree!" A voice shouted. Katniss woke up to hear the sound of that voice again. Why did that voice sound familiar? It couldn't be...

" Peeta! What are you doing?" Katniss whispered loud enough for him to hear her.

"What does it look like sweetheart? She's over here! Hurry up!" Peeta shouted.

"You bastard! You little bastard! I'm from your own distict, why the hell are you ratting me out?" Katniss shouted at him, forgetting to be quiet.

Peeta was about to respond when three muderous looking tributes appeared from the bushes below. First Clove came,a small but vicious girl from District 2,with an evil smirk and an extremely sharp knife in her hand. Then came the tall boy from District 1, Marvel , with a long spear with a sharp tip at the end. Finally Cato came, with a long sword in his hand, looking up amusedly at Katniss up in the tree. " Being up there won't help you 12!" He shouted up at her. The others laughed up at her and started to shout up snide comments at her like " You're a coward 12!" or " Come on Katniss, come down and fight!"

" Come down here you little slut, come down here and fight." Peeta shouted up at Katniss.

Anger and hurt filled Katniss' body and like before,she saw red. She shot one of her arrows at Peeta's head. Her target must have improved because every arrow she shot, hit her victims perfectly. Peeta fell to the ground and the careers looked up at her in shock. " That's enough! If one of you think that you can kill me that easily, you thought wrong. Why don't one of you come up here and fight like a man if you're so tough." Katniss climbed down from the tree with one of her knives in hand. " Fight me, I just dare one of you!"

Clove responded angrily " You bitch! Do you really think that you can scare _us _? Remember where you come from, bitch, you're from the damn slums, weakness is all you've ever known. Why do you think that all of a sudden you can come up to us and say some crappy speech to try to stop us from killing you? You're nothing but a stupid bitch form 12, why don't you just give up and die, like the rest of you're savage-"

Katniss stabbed Clove in the stomach, and turned to the two boys who hadn't said a word this entire time. " Let me make this very clear to you _both. _If either if you think about coming after me again, i'll make sure you're both very sorry. Understood?" She told them venomously. They both nodded their heads in fear, knowing that if they said or did something wrong, she would actually kill them. Katniss was like a career, except she was from 12. The losing district; the disrict with only one victor in Hunger Games history. How could Katniss Everdeen from District 12 intimidate the two of the most powerful people in the arena?

Then Katniss ran toward the other end of the forest, leaving both boys to try and nurse Clove back to health. Luckily for them, she wasn't dead, just unconsious. Cato just stood there for a moment before asking "What the hell just happened? Did we just get threatned by Everdeen? "

Marvel answered " Yeah, we did. You probaly would have known that if you were paying attention."

" What's that suppossed to mean?"

" It means that next time she's around, don't act stupid and stare at her. Kill her."

" I know!" Cato snapped," It's just, how did she manage to stab Clove, and Clove didn't do anything about it? I mean, you would think she would have killed Everdeen on the spot."

" Yeah, but why didn't you?" Marvel countered.

" You know why." Cato growled.

" Oh yes, you have a crush for Katniss Everdeen." Marvel chuckeled.

" Dude, shut the hell up." Cato said sharply.

" Okay, but don't say you don't, because that would be lying. And we all know how lying is wrong."

"What the hell are you getting at?"

"Don't know." That made both boys laugh hard. Once the finally calmed down, Marvel suggested that they camp for the night, and the two set up a fire and fell asleep on opposite sides of the fire, with their weapons in hand. But it took Cato a little while to fall asleep, because he was thinking about a certain brown haired, grey eyed girl from District 12.


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Katniss awoke to the souund of yelling. Instinctively grabbing her bow and arrow, Katniss looked down to the ground to see the girl from District 6 getting frustrated at a small rabbit. Katniss was beginning to remember her, that girl was snobby, sassy, and just plain stupid. Katniss decided that she should just kill her now, just to get it over with. She threw down one of her knives at the girl and it hit her perfectly on her forehead. The girl fell down to the ground and then the loud sound of a cannon echoed it's way across the arena. Feeling pleased with herself, yet with that twinge of sadness, Katniss got down from the tree and began walking towards the sound of rushing water and she heard footsteps behind her.

Katniss turned around and shouted "Who's there? Show yourself!"

She then saw a tall girl with bright red hair and brilliant green eyes. Foxface. The girl had a evil grin on her face.

Katniss was about to fight her, but then Foxface threw something at her and then Katniss saw black.

* * *

"Cato, come look at this." Marvel whispered to him, and pointed towards the river. They saw the girl from District 5 standing over the unconsious body of Katniss with a knife in her hand. Cato reacted immediately and charged into the clearing with his sword in hand. He ran over to Foxface and sliced her head off. Another cannon echoed it's way across the arena signaling another fallen tribute. Cato bent over Katniss to check her pulse and thankfully he felt one. Cato then realized that he had a decision to make: 1.) Kill Katniss now and get it over with or 2.) Take her back to camp with him Clove, and Marvel.

"I can't, Marvel. She's coming back with us."

"You know that Clove will kill her when she wakes up, right?" Cato nodded. "Fine, she's can come, but just make sure she stays away from my weapons."

"And if she doesn't?" Cato inquiered with one eyebrow raised.

"I'll kill her, no questions asked."

"Like hell you would. If you or Clove touches her, I'll kill you both."

"Whatever."

Cato rolled his eyes and picked up Katniss and carried her bridal style back to camp.

* * *

Two days later, Katniss woke up and studied her surroundings. She was in the middle of a clearing and she saw a tall blond boy sitting across from her. Immediately, Katniss sat up and made a grab for her weapons only to realize that they weren't next to her. Scared, Katniss slowly turned to the boy and asked him " What happend to my weapons? Who are you? How long was I out?"

The boy turned to face her and she was shocked. It was Cato. He had rescued her, but why? " Listen Katniss, I know that this is confusing, but Marvel, found you unconsious with that District 5 girl standing over you. He called me over and I came and killed her."

" But why didn't you kill me, then? I mean, you hate me."

" Why would I hate you? I don't even know you." Cato responded.

" You don't? I thought you did, because of the way you treated me during training."

_Flashback _

_Katniss walked over to the sparring station, and waited for an available opponent. Then, out of nowhere, the boy from District 2 appeared. He was really tall and was standing over her with a sneer spread across his face. _

_"I don't know why you're even here 12. We all know you're going to be the first to die in the arena. Now why don't you go back to your little boyfriend and go paint some flowers." _

_Katniss didn't even know what to think. Her anger kicked into play," I know who the hell you think you are if you could just come up to me and act all tuff. You don't know what i'm capable of 2, so if I were you, I'd watch my mouth, or the Capital will have to show you're face when they announce the dead tributes."_

_Cato looked as though he were going to kill her right then and there. "Just you wait 12, you'll see who the real tuff guy is." He said towering over her. But Katniss, being herself, didn't back down. _

_"I'm not scared of you 2." _

_"You should be 12." He responded before walking away._

* * *

" I remember, but that doesn't mean I hate you, it just means that I'm better than you in combat, and survival skills." Cato said.

"Wow. Even in the arena you're still an ass. And by the way, Peeta and I were never together. He was always to much of a show off."Katniss stated.

On the outside, Cato looked as though he couldn't care less, but on the inside, he was jumping for joy. However, he had to keep his emotions inside, so he said "Oh, really. That's interesting."

"At least someone knows." Katniss said."

"You're forgetting we're on every TV the Capitol has to offer, so the entire country knows now." Cato pointed out.

Katniss blused a deep red, and said "Damn it, you're right. That was really stupid of me."

"No it wasn't" Cato blurted out.

Katniss gave him a small smile, " You don't think so?"

"No, if there was a 90% chance I was going to die, I would get anything I have troubling me off of my chest."

"Do you have anything you're guilty about?" Katniss asked.

"There is one thing, i'm guilty for treating you so horribly when we first met." Cato admitted.

"It's okay, I wasn't the nicest to you either."

"Please I was worse, the constant taunting of you and Mellark, it wasn't necessary."

"Then why did you do it?" Katniss asked.

"I really don't know, because i'm an ass?" Cato inquired.

"Probably." Katniss said laughing.

"Allright, I have a deal for you Katniss." Cato started.

"What kind of deal?" Katniss asked, suddenly suspicious.

"I, Cato Alexander, promise to protect you, Katniss Everdeen, until the day I die." Cato told her, looking straight into her eyes.

Katniss was too shocked for words, _he didn't seriously mean that, did he?_. "Um, do you actually mean that, Cato?"

He was about to answer when all of a sudden "Cato!Cato!Where are you?" A shrill,loud and annoying voice shouted.

"Oh no, it's Clove." Cato said.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the Capital, Cesar Flickerman looked as though Christmas had come early when he announced, "Well, citizens of Panem, we have a new romance brewing in the arena! Will Cato keep to his promise? Let's see for Clove's reaction to this new alliance!'


End file.
